1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to air filler adapters and more particularly to air filler adapters adapted for receiving medium and low pressure air supplies from a variety of sources in order to inflate these consumer goods.
2. Description of the Prior Art
While the prior art relating to the nozzles is quite extensive, most nozzles are adapted to only one or a very few types of fluid supply fittings. For example, fluid adapters are normally available for connecting a common garden hose to an indoor water tap. The water tap's aerator tip is removed and the adapter screws onto the faucet in place of the aerator. Most of these adapters have various thread diameters as well as plastic double-threaded sleeves so as to permit the user to connect his adapter to various faucet tips having slightly different thread sizes. The other end of the adapter is threaded to conform to a conventional garden hose which may then be used to wash cars, fill beds, etc. Vacuum cleaner accessories are often provided with adapters for connecting these accessories to vacuum cleaner hoses made by various manufacturers. There are also adapters on the market which connect vacuum cleaner hoses to air matresses in order to inflate the air mattress quickly. One example of such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,230 to MacFarland.
Various arrangements have been proposed to adapt air from a service station air supply to various fittings in order to fill various articles. For example, most service station air supplies use quick-release hose couplings to which various chucks are applied. These chucks generally include air chucks having schrader valve-actuated shut-off valves which permit air to escape only when the chuck is pressed against a schrader valve, filler fittings for dual tires, and specialized fittings having built-in pressure gages.
Various fittings are available for connecting such schrader valve air chucks to tires having presta or woods pressure-differential type tire valves. These generally consist of a tube having inside threads on one end to fit over the presta valve and outside threads on the other end to conform to the schrader valve air chuck or a pump with a schrader valve inflator fitting.
A person having various inflatable items may find that each inflatable item has a different type of air fitting. For example, he may have an air mattress, in his home for a guest, which might have a wide-mouth air fitting, a camping air mattress having a smaller fitting and a bicycle having presta air valves on its tire tubes. A presta air valve has a smaller outside diameter than a schrader valve and, as is well known to those who use such valves, requires an adapter for inflation with a schrader air chuck. He may wish to inflate these items from various air sources such as a portable air pump (either electric or manually operated), a vacuum cleaner exhaust, a hair dryer and a gas station air supply. While clearly a hair dryer would be somewhat ineffective in inflating the bicycle tires to over 8 Kg/cm.sup.2 (115 psi), it would be desirable to have a single fitting which would adapt a variety of air sources to a variety of inflatable items so that each item could be inflated from any of the available air sources, provided that the air source presents sufficient pressure to inflate or partially inflate the inflatable item.